August 13th, 7:00 Sunday Noonish, Roma Italy

Another Filthy City, we're really missing Bern and Zurich Switzerland.

Trying to find the nearby hotels, I asked the souvenir shop worker, and he told me "I don't live here", are you kidding me?!?!?!?!? You work here but don't live here?!?!? At least pretend to not speak English. Someone else I asked told me in PERFECT English "I don't Speak English", could have fooled me, but this point I really wanted to say screw the Vatican and the Coliseum and lets find a sanitary and civil city.

Not to mention I was still dirty from dancing ALL day the day before, the cramped sleeping condition, I think I got about 2 hours of choppy sleep, and then the hike with the packs through Pisa, the heat, and the fact that I still had eye-liner on in this much more conservative country didn't help either, all and all I was just not in a good mood. Which sucked because I didn't want to be in this kind of a mood in Europe , I wanted to get the best of this experience. Thank god Nick had a smile on and was coping with my attitude. I just needed some rest, and to get over my pissy mood.

We went to like 6 hotels, they either were 140 Euros ($190-ish) a night or they didn't take credit cards. Just when we were about to throw in the towel and pay a phenomenal amount, we found a place for only 70 Euros a night and took Visa. It ended up being a REALLY nice room. Sharing a bed, but whatever. Our kitchenette was shared, but didn't matter. Our bathroom had a nice shower and Bade, Nicks first, but these one's weren't like the ones in Japan, they were for girls to use, more like a splash sink I guess instead of one that sprayed.

We went and got dinner, where the service was disgusting, ignoring us for a bit, then slamming down the food and drinks and then ignoring us for the rest of the meal, and the worst part is that they automatically add a 10% service charge, whatever, at this point I was pretty sure I never wanted to return to Roma. We decided to retire early and catch up on the rest we had been missing. We put in "V for Vendetta", the only movie I had brought. I passed out almost immediately. I started to dream that I was in a sorority house, and it was kind of crazy, upon waking up around 9 I understood why, the adjourning room had three girls from Australia who were talking to Nick.

They were extremely friendly and nice. They are packing for 2 1/2 months, Nick and I couldn’t understand being gone for that long. But besides not having Michael here, I am starting to get disconnected and I can understand that after a certain point it doesn't really hit you the same way it does initially. The girls were all 24-25, Diana, Guilia, and Lisa. Lisa is going to be an elementary teacher, and is very sweet. Guilia was a "cheeky" girl, whose family was Italian, and Diana was much more quiet, but she wasn't feeling the best due to a brutal run in with some sea urchins on the Greek island of Mykonos. The girls had to use our bathroom sink to wash laundry because there's wouldn't hold water, and they were so kind as to wash some of our shirts for us as well.

I made an errand run for some ice cream and beer. After some chatting, eating nuts, and goofing around, we all retired early for rest, so as not to miss anything the next day, we had a LOT to see.